Spooky Rivers is based on the TikTok Series. I know I sound like the oldest person in the room, but I never thought a book would come from social media. Is this a case of man biting dog, or am I as old as Methuselah? Regardless, the first thing you’ll notice about Spooky Rivers: 25 Strand and Mysterious Rivers That Snake Across our Planet is its size. It’s one of the three largest illustrated books we’ve received at Daddy Mojo. This is a book that makes a statement and is impossible to ignore.
The content is on par for upper-elementary readers at its most basic, mainly due to the massive illustrations and larger-than-average text. Students in elementary school, at any level, will be attracted to the book due to the same things. Spooky Rivers’ vibrant colors aren’t just reserved to its cover. The autumn orange letters, underwater monstrous creatures, skeletal remains, hidden treasure, neon fish and embossed aspects to draw you in like the dorsal fin of an Anglerfish.
Run your fingers over the cover to Spooky Rivers one time, and you’ll do it a thousand times. The diver, river snack, some of the gold doubloons, plant life and houses on fire are raised. Yeah, you’ve outgrown illustrated books, but resisting the urge to touch elements such as these is futile. I’m trying to type this, but find myself unconsciously rubbing my fingers over the book’s cover. This is the reading equivalent of a sleeping cat, minus the purring or unpredictable biting.
The 25 rivers highlighted in the book are unpredictable. They’re placed all around the planet. Some of the rivers have two pages devoted to them, while others have four pages. It’s also impossibly fascinating and will teach everybody who opens the book something. There’s a river of lava, rivers that have been the scene of maritime tragedies, a river with a famous tidal surge, underground rivers, bubbling rivers, and a river that’s caught on fire. This is wonderful stuff that’s refreshingly presented and ridiculously entertaining.
It’s somewhere between an illustrated book and a reference book, or depending on your age, a combination of the two. The same could be said as to what age its target demographic is. This is rabbit hole, potato chip, cat video information to where you can’t stop at just one page. Its illustrations are loaded with action and adventure, like an old timey ship going over the banks of the Niagara River. The Congo River has people kayaking down its rapids, and on the next page shows the flesh-eating fish that live in its waters.
The Sultana, a beautiful steamboat is the deadliest maritime disaster in United States history. It happened on the Mississippi River in the waning days of the Civil War, killing 2,100 men. The ship was only designed to transport 376. The ship strained under the massive number of passengers, which caused a boiler to explode. Spooky Rivers is loaded with factoid trivia like that.
That age of repeating trivia is mid-elementary school. Those ages will read a story or hear an interesting fact, and then share that with everyone in their circle. If sharing river-born trivia or facts is annoying, don’t read Spooky Rivers. It’s shareable, quotable, and can instill the aspect of learning to love to read for ages seven and up. The pages are slightly thicker than most illustrated books. This lends itself to being friendlier to younger hands who might not be as coordinated as their upper-elementary school brothers and sisters. Elementary schools need Spooky Rivers. Middle and high schools would benefit from it because their students don’t know most of the content in the book and will spend time in book, which is always a great thing.
Spooky Rivers: 25 Strange and Mysterious Rivers That Snake Across our Planet is by Geo Rutherford and is available on Abrams Books for Young Readers, an imprint of Abrams Books.
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